1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a software reuse support technique for supporting the reuse of the existing software when new software is created.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, in the technical fields of vehicles and mobile phones, a control target is controlled by so-called embedded software. The embedded software has advantages in that it can perform control more flexibly and accurately than the control method according to the related art using a mechanical mechanism or an electric circuit and it is possible to partially change the software to develop many products derived from the software.
In recent years, with the expansion of the application range of the embedded software, the number of derivative products and the size of software have increased. Therefore, it is necessary to significantly increase the efficiency of development and effectively reuse the existing products in the development of derivative products.
The embedded software used in a vehicle engine system is given as an example. The engine meets non-mechanical requirements, such as a destination and emission regulation, as well as mechanical requirements, such as the number of cylinders, engine displacement, a fuel injection type, and an intake control type. These requirements are set as specifications. There are many choices for the specifications. For example, the number of cylinders may be 4, 6, or 8. The existing embedded software is developed so as to correspond to a specific combination of these specifications.
Therefore, it is difficult to use the existing embedded software without any change in order to develop a new embedded software product. It is desired to maximize the reuse of the existing software in order to improve the efficiency of development. For this reason, a software reuse support apparatus for supporting the reuse of the existing software has been proposed.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 8-147152 discloses an example of a software reuse support apparatus for reusing the previously created software. The software reuse support apparatus generates a search path for determining the specifications to be reused, on the basis of the relationship between the previous component specifications or a creation history and presents it to the user.
JP-A No. 10-63494 discloses a program component use support system that searches for the reusability of the existing software component. The support system detects the record of use of each existing software component and sets the software component that is frequently used as a candidate with high reusability.
However, the techniques disclosed in JP-A Nos. 8-147152 and 10-63494 are applied to business software, not embedded software. The embedded software is characterized in that it is incorporated into vehicles and apparatuses, such as mobile phones. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the specifications of an apparatus into which the software is incorporated, in addition to the specifications of the software.